Museum, Cliff House and Other Dwellings at Mesa Verde

You can't see everything in a day at Mesa Verde National Park.  In fact, it takes more than the two days we spent there.  But we saw quite a bit and finished up with a tour of the Museum over on Chapin Mesa.

It had a great 25 minute video explaining the history and some of the archeology of the Ancient Puebloans who occupied the area.

Some of the displays were old ones from the 1950's which I liked.

 A short hike to the Spruce House was next on the agenda and we had a good walk down the zig zag trail.

 The Spruce House is one of the best preserved and third largest cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde.

We next made our way over to the Cliff Canyon area and saw more dwellings high up along the canyon walls.

There was lots to see and plenty of scenic driving at Mesa Verde.  We are glad we finally made it there and hope to return.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Santa Fe and Tent Rocks

If you are in Albuquerque for a few days, you have to consider driving the 60 miles to Santa Fe.  "The City Different" is always a fun place to see, even if it is only for a few hours.  We arrived in time to walk around before finding some lunch.

The Plaza is always find to wander around and this time, we notice traffic was only allowed on one street.  The other three streets were closed off and it was to walk around.  We didn't have anything in particular in mind, but just took in the beautiful day.

In my mind, no visit to Santa Fe is complete without walking along the Palace of the Governors and checking out the beautiful Pueblo Indian jewelry.

And seeing the St. Francis of Assisi Basilica never gets old.

After lunch and a couple of hours in Santa Fe we headed back to Albuquerque toward the Cochiti Pueblo.  We specifically were interested in doing a short hike along the trail of the Tent Rocks National Monument.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages Tent Rocks (aka as Kasha-Katuwe "white cliffs" and has made a number of trail improvements since we last visited four years ago.

Tent.Rocks.

We started out on the Cave Loop Trail which was a not very elevated.  It was an easy hike along open trails.

This little cave was quite interesting and made me wonder how man hundreds (thousands?) of people had used it for a season in times past.  Definitely a curiosity.

Next, it was on to the Slot Canyon Trail which we picked up at the end of the Cave Loop Trail.

 It was a bit narrow a few times.  Glad we picked an off day.  Can't imagine how long it would be during peak season with lots of people waiting their turn.

 The kicker on this trail was the steep elevation at places including the 630 ft rise at toward the end of the trail.  It was getting a little late and we opted to cut short our hike after some very scenic photos.

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Trip to White Sands National Monument

We drove down to White Sands National Monument with Adam and Melissa on Sunday.  We wanted to catch the sunset and then sunrise the next day.  We left about mid-day after a late breakfast at Frontier Restaurant.

We took a scenic route through Socorro, San Antonio (NM), Corrizzo and past Alamogordo NM to Holloman AFB.  We got rooms at the Holloman Inn on base which were quite satisfactory.  Then we grabbed some dinner at Chili's and drove out to White Sands.

We had an hour before sunset was scheduled at 8:07 PM so we got a map of the 8 mile loop in the park and drove out to an area where we parked.

We drove past the Amphitheater and Alkali Flat Trail and basically picked a parking spot and climbed the dunes.  We took our time and walked along the top of them and looked for a good vantage point to see the sun set over mountains.  We ended up walking about 1/2 mile up the dunes and across others to a good place.

Then we took a seat and watched the sun creep down over the mountains.  Some to the dunes were 20 and 30 feet a whole picture of beauty by themselves.

The next morning we were hoping to catch the sunrise but the area did not open up until 7:00 AM which was long after sunrise.  Instead, we took our time checking out of our rooms, then took a windshield tour of Holloman AFB.

The desert setting reminded me a lot of Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson.  Except here, all the aircraft were kept under wraps and there were none on the runway.  We went over to the airplane 'park' display area and saw some of the aircraft that have been in service at the base.

Then we made our way out to White Sands again and stopped in a few places to take a look.

One shot I wanted to get was a Yucca plant against the white dunes.  We drove around and took some shots.  I liked this one best.

It was a spectacular evening watching the sun set over the dunes.  Then it was another terrific day walking around in the bright morning sun.  It was hot too, so it was a good idea to take an umbrella.

Next we went back to the Visitor Center and watched the video on the history of the geological phenomenon at White Sands.

We were really glad to be able see the beautiful place with Adam and Melissa.  It was a scenic and magical place.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Oh Say Can You See?

Though we've lived fairly close to Baltimore and Fort McHenry, we've never been to the National Historic Park.  It's really impressive!

I've never been to clear about the War of 1812, but this was an opportunity to learn more and put some more history into perspective.

The United States declared war on Britain and Ireland for a number of reasons including: the hijacking of U.S. sailors and forcing them into service aboard British ships (known as impressment);  support of Indians in war against the U.S. and blockading/restricting U.S. trade with France.  The British seemed to have the resources and momentum after burning down the White House and Washington D.C. in 1812.  But later the U.S. had finally had some key victories in New York and New Orleans and in Baltimore. The war lasted from 1812 to 1814 when the Treaty of Ghent was signed and then ratified by Congress in 1815.

In Baltimore, the British were getting ready to take out Fort McHenry and then Baltimore when Francis Scott Key was trying to effect a prisoner of war exchange.  He was on board a British ship just before the hostilities broke out and they held him until after the siege was over.  It was from a British ship that Key saw the flag through the fog and smoke of 25 hours under bombardment.  He penned what was originally called 'Defense of Fort HcHenry'.  It was adopted for use by the U.S. Navy and eventually became our National Anthem in 1931.

We loved our time at the Historic Site.  The displays in the Visitor Center were unique as was the fantastic video of the story behind Fort McHenry and the flag.

At the end of the video the double wide screen went up and through the picture window we saw the flag over the old fort.

It was quite moving when one, then two--then all of us stood up as the Star Spangled Banner blared over the speakers.  Great start to our visit.

Next we went outside and listed to a Park guide give a presentation on the flag.  This was an audience-participation event and we all got into it.

First we lined up into two lines then held the flag which is an exact replica of the one  being flown.

As we unrolled it and then rolled it back, the guide gave us quite an interesting history lesson.  For example the flag that was flown at the time had 15 stars and 15 stripes.  (Guess what states that symbolized? - the original 13 plus Vermont and Kentucky.)

As we moved around the grounds, we went over to the old fort itself.

The grounds and the rooms around the fort were very well maintained.

The fort was also used in other conflicts including as a hospital during the Civil War and World War 1 and as a training base.

The fort is right on the water which has changed its look over the years with industry near by.

But some interesting vessels still make their way down the Chesapeake.

Fort McHenry was a great stop and we enjoyed our afternoon there!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!